Friday, June 6, 2008

smog and smells

Reuters reports that the people of Mexico City are losing their sense of smell because of the area's chronic air pollution.

Researchers added a rotten-cabbage-smelling contaminant to powered milk, allowing them to see how much they needed to add before test subjects rejected it. (I'm wondering if the subjects actually drank the contaminated milk or just smelled it.)

Then they compared the results from Mexico City residents with those from citizens of a nearby town.

The scientists theorized that taste could also be affected since the two senses are so closely linked.

And of course, there are all the other things associated with pollution: asthma, lung infections, cancer, etc. Another study has found that children in Mexico City have unusually small lungs.